İmam Hatip school

Education was halted on the third day of the new school year at a high school in the Akçakoca district of the Black Sea province of Düzce, as tensions grew following the school's conversion to a girls' vocational imam-hatip religious school.

One of the priorities over the 13-year rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been raising ?pious generations,? meaning the country?s education system has been a special target for the party, and its de facto leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has hailed the progress made in making ?mam Hatip religious vocational high schools into more active and visible institutions during his term in power. 

The governor of the western Turkish province of Edirne, where many members of Turkey's Roma community live, has announced plans to train Roma children as preachers and as members of the Ottoman army band.

Half of the Turkish population is unhappy with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) administration. There is a group among them who are quite well-off, yet are also the most angry and frustrated. They are so full of hatred that you would think they must be suffering concretely and tremendously under this government.

A historic building in the coastal Marmara town of Erdek that was used as a Greek school in the 19th century has been converted into an imam-hatip high school, a religious vocational school, after remaining idle for five years.

The massive rise in the number of imam-hatip religious schools in the last four years shows how the AKP has been championing a more conservative education system, according to education reformer Batuhan Aydagül.